


Not With Haste

by Valsnotebook



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Age Difference, Alternative Universe - Figure Skating, I did not like Spinning Out, I did not watch yuri on ice, I will add tags as I go, I'm just a fan of the sport, M/M, Pair Skater! Dean, Single Skater ! Castiel, Slow Burn, future mentions of homophobia, lol, mentions of eating disorders, mentions of real life skaters, unfortunately it's an issue in the sport, very slow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:28:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23402251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valsnotebook/pseuds/Valsnotebook
Summary: "Dean noticed a certain young skater running around the warm-up area, with headphones on and a look that could freeze anyone on the spot.He knew exactly who the skater was: Castiel Novak, starting his warm up for his short program, scheduled right after the pairs’ event."orthe figure skating au no one asked for.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Jo Harvelle & Dean Winchester
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	1. 2017 - Part One

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I've had this idea in my mind for too long, and I had to get it out of my system. In the end notes there are some links to videos you might use for reference if you're interested :)
> 
> For non figure skating fans: in the end notes, there's a short summary of how the sport works.
> 
> For figure skating fans: team Russia and team Usa skaters are replaced by the show's characters, but there'll be mentions of real life skaters. (I'll let you guess who Naomi was based on.)  
> Also small spoiler, Castiel's storyline is a mix between Alina's and Evgenia's. 
> 
> Enjoy!

_**Figure Skating World Championships 2017** _

_**Helsinki, Finland.** _

The first time Dean noticed Castiel in person was during one of the most nerve wrecking moments of his life; he and Jo were finishing their warm up for their free skate.

They were 5th after the short program, and it was the first time the chance of fighting for a podium was more a reality than a dream.

Paired up when she was 16 and he was 17, it took them a full year to learn how to skate in pairs, and managed to be successful enough in their two years as Juniors. After that, they had stuck together all through the seven season in the senior circuit, winning five american titles in the process. They had gone to the Olympics in Sochi in 2014, and finished in the top ten for the first time. They were ninth at Worlds the year later, and seventh in 2016.

This season had been rough, though, finishing off the podium at both Grand Prix events and once again not qualifying for the final. Jo had been the most upset about it, crying the whole trip back home. “ _No matter how hard we work, it’s just never our turn._ ”

So, today was their chance for a breakthrough: Worlds in the pre-olympics season, one of the last chances to make an impression on the judges and make the figure skating world keep their name in mind.

Dean had never been as competitive as Jo, but he was trying to focus on at least skating cleanly so that there would be no regrets on the way home.

One way to skate clean was to focus without getting overwhelmed by nerves. One way to not get overwhelmed was to _not_ look at the other skaters in their off ice warm up.

He and Jo were in costumes, as the last group before theirs had just gotten on the ice. At this point they were basically done trying elements off ice, just mentally going through their program, counting in time with their song and merely changing holds to assure they were in sync. As they were doing that, Dean noticed a certain young skater running around the warm-up area, with headphones on and a look that could freeze anyone on the spot. He knew exactly who the skater was: Castiel Novak, starting his warm up for his short program, scheduled right after the pair’s event.

He was another product of Naomi’s camp in Russia: dominating the ladies event with interchangeable sixteen-year-old girls probably wasn’t enough for her ambition, so she had taken Castiel under her wing and, not-so-surprisingly, he had won every single event in his debut season as a senior. And now, he was about to finish off the season with a world title.

Dean had heard all about Castiel Novak, he had watched a couple of videos of his programs, but he had never competed in the same event as the boy. He did not expect him to be so captivating. It was everything: the way he was moving like no one was there, and at the same time like he owned the place. His eyes focused, a small frown on his features, his lips tight together...

He realized he had been staring too long when Jo walked into his chest, as he was supposed to step back.

“Dean, what the hell?”

“Shit, sorry.”

Jo turned around, figuring what had caught Dean’s attention.

“Now’s not the time to crush over blue eyes there” She hissed, slapping his shoulder to get his attention.

“What?!”

“Come on, one last twist and then we go put our skates on”

They were the first pair to skate in their group, and Dean was actually glad: the ice wasn’t as bad, and to skate right after the warm up on ice helped him to keep his focus. He and Jo held hands as they skated the last laps around the ice, waiting for their names to be called.

_“Representing United States of America, Jo Harvelle and Dean Winchester_ ”

The crowd cheered as they saluted the judges and got into position. Castiel completely forgotten, all that mattered now was to get through the program alive and possibly happy.

He smirked at the judges, knowing Jo was smiling seductively at them as well, and the first note of their music hit.

Toward the end of the program, Dean had a terrifying moment in which he realized they had not made a mistake yet: most of the difficult elements were done, now it was almost time for their last throw jump. It was a triple flip, a jump they had been having problems with throughout the whole season.

_It’s all about the timing_ , he reminded himself. And also, all about not getting distracted.

There it was: Jo had to land it, but both of them needed to be in sync for the take off. He breathed in time with the music and got Jo closer to him.

_One… two…_ Jo bent her knee right when she was supposed to, his hands on her sides gripping her and helping her take off. They were perfectly on time with the beat of the music, if she landed it they were gonna get even more points.

He turned around to skate after her and there she was, landing the jump without any effort. She smiled at him, breaking character for a second, and they went into their last element, the step sequence.

They arrived second, and won their first World medal.

* * *

“We should totally go to the men’s free skate.”

“I don’t know Jo, I just want to lay here for the next month.”

She was in his hotel room, sitting on his bed eating chips. It was two days after the best day of their career, and it was also the last day of competition: ice dance’s free dance was happening as they were resting after their breakfast, and in the afternoon there was going to be the men’s free skating.

As predicted, Castiel was first after the short program, with a 15 points gap from last year’s world champion.

Dean might have watched Castiel’s short program as soon as it was uploaded on youtube, but no one had to know that.

Especially not Jo.

“I’m just saying, the federation reserved us tickets, we might as well go. I enjoy watching other skaters suffer through competition when I know I’m off the hook.”

“I’m not saying you can’t go.”

“Come on, you know we gotta do this stuff together. And you know a lot of fans in the audience would love to get a closer look at this handsome face.”

“Sure.”

“And a little bird told me that a certain someone is about to skate a very impressive long program with five quads, probably getting himself a world title. We wouldn’t want to miss seeing that live, would we?”

“He’s a good skater, so what?”

“Sure, put that in your vows for the wedding you’re already planning”

Dean groaned into his pillow a _“fuck off_ ”, but he already knew he was going to go with her anyway.

Castiel was even more phenomenal in person. Skating to Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no.2, he kept everyone on the edge of their seat: delivering jump after jump, following the crescendo of the music without missing a beat, intricate transitions between elements, perfect posture all through the program.

To an objective eye he might have looked a bit stiff and tense in a couple of instances, but Dean did not care at all. His eyes followed the figure on the ice with apprehension in complete awe. He had never seen someone skate like that.

All too soon the program was over and the audience was on its feet, screaming and throwing flower and all kind of gifts. Dean stood up as well and his seat was close enough to the ice that he could see a quick, genuine, satisfied smile appear on Castiel’s lips as he bowed for the crowd.

Right after that, Dean thought Castiel’s eyes had spotted him in the crowd. Whether he was imagining things or not ( _he probably was_ ), he didn’t dare break the eye contact. And Castiel didn’t either, for a whole second, before turning around and bowing for the other half of the arena.

Jo shouted in his ear

“Just a good skater my ass!”


	2. 2017 - Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quick disclaimer: i'm not a competitive skater. I watched a lot of interviews of various skaters and follow them on socials, but obviously what I write about training is not going to be accurate. Also, I've never been to Los Angeles.
> 
> Video reference in the end notes!
> 
> Figure skating notes: after every major competition, there's a Gala where some skaters are invited to perform purely for the audience. Usually the medalists are invited, but also other skaters picked by who is hosting the event.

March 2017

Helsinki, Finland

There were two types of competitive skaters: the ones who couldn’t stand even _hearing_ of figure skating outside of the rink (as it already made up 99% of their lives), and those who were fan of the sport first and athletes second. Dean definitely belonged to the latter category, as much as he tried to hide it in order to pass as a professional.

That’s why at first he simply thought his fixation with Castiel to be purely the “I love your skating” type: just like when he was so obsessed with Yuna Kim, he almost asked her an autograph the first time he met her.

That’s also why when he went back to the hotel after Castiel’s performance and immediately re-watched it on youtube, he didn’t think too much of it.

If the next day during the gala rehearsal he stared at the newly crowned world champion whenever he could, it was only because he liked the way he moved across the ice. Or the way he would stand still on the ice, perfect posture, arms crossed over his chest, listening to the choreographer instructions.

Looking way more focused than Dean.

 _Should I be paying attention?_ He turned to Jo and there she was, nodding along whatever the guy at the centre of the group was saying.

So maybe staring at Castiel had cost him the entire explanation of the final number they were all supposed to skate together. One of the perks of skating pairs was that he could just follow Jo’s lead. No harm done, nothing weird happening at all.

What Dean definitely did not expect, was for Castiel to come up to him as soon as they called for a five minute break.

He was about to reach Jo, who was already chatting with one of the Canadian ladies, when he heard a deep, unfamiliar voice calling “Hello”.

When he turned around and realized who the voice belonged to, it took everything out of him not to lose his balance and awkwardly fall on his butt right in front of the guy.

“Hi!”

Castiel looked at him for whole second, his mouth slightly open, like he was trying to find the right thing to say.

“You skate… good.” He finally conveyed, turning his head toward Jo and then to Dean.

“You watched us skate?” Dean asked back, too much in disbelief of what was happening to simply say ‘ _Thanks, you too._ ’

“Yes, your free skate. In the gym... in the TV.”

Castiel spoke each word like he was trying his hardest, and Dean finally remembered the guy’s native tongue was freaking _Russian_ and he probably didn’t have much spare time to study English on top of being a world class skater.

So, he had watched them skate on the screens in the warm up area and thought they were good. And he had decided to tell him that personally.

_Cool,_ _yeah, okay. I can be cool about this._

It probably took Dean a beat too long to come up with an answer, though, because now Castiel’s eyes weren’t staring into his own anymore but were fixed on something behind Dean’s back, looking mortified by his silence.

Doing what he would usually do whenever he wanted to make someone relax, he put a hand on Castiel’s shoulder and smiled at him.

“Thank you. I also saw your free skate, you were incredible.”

Now that Dean was closer he could appreciate the intensity of the blue eyes he thought he had seen in videos, but to which the videos did not do justice.

“Yes?”

“Yes, stunning.”

“Stunning.” He repeated, his head slightly tilted to the side.

“Yeah, like, the best. I mean, obviously...”

Castiel finally smiled at that, and oh, _did he have a nice smile_.

He nodded with a satisfied glint in his eyes and skated away, toward a small group of russian skaters.

Completely baffled by the interaction, Dean only knew one thing for sure. What he was feeling now? Totally _not_ what he felt for Tessa Virtue for the first time he chatted with her.

He resumed to his original plan to reach Jo, only to find her staring at him with her jaw over-dramatically dropped.

“You wanna eat flies for lunch?”

“What was that?!”

“What was what?”

“Don’t play stupid. ”

“What? Oh come on, he just told me he liked our free skate. Come on, they’re starting again.”

“Yeah, right”

When Dean went to bed that night, he replayed those five minutes in his head countless times until realization finally struck him. He didn’t believe Castiel to be a beautiful skater.

He believed Castiel to be _beautiful_.

June 2017

Los Angeles, California

Dean knew from experience that preparing for the Olympic season required double the work compared to a regular season. What he didn’t expect was for Jo to lose her mind as early as June.

It was one of those ‘bad days’, where nothing seemed to go right: Jo had been working on her triple lutz to add as a throw jump, while Dean had been working on his triple flip so that they could upgrade their side by side sequence.

But that particular day, both of them seemed to have forgotten how to land a jump _without_ falling on the ice.

When an exasperated Jody had made them switch to trying their usual lifts (even thought the had done that yesterday), the curse continued when Dean stumbled on his toe pick right at the exit of a lift, making them both fall while still entangled in each other.

Luckily, they knew how not to hurt themselves, but it was still risky enough to make Jo cry out in frustration.

“I’m not going to watch you two get injured before the season even starts. Go sort it our on your own, just get off the ice.” Jody finally decided, though they still had an hour left of ice time.

Jo left and rushed to the locker room without speaking a word to Dean, and Jody looked at him pointedly. Was he supposed to take the blame for how the entire day had gone?

Hell no.

Still, once he got out of his skates and changed to summer appropriate clothes, he waited for Jo outside the girls’ room.

“Let’s go to the beach” she said, heading for the exit.

As much as Dean did not like Los Angeles, there were two perks in training there: he could live in the same state as his brother, Sam, who was studying law at Stanford, and he could drive to the beach whenever he liked.Especially before the summer really hit and it got too crowded, it was nice to jog on the shore on his off-training days.

It wasn’t the first time he and Jo went there together to cool off, and it wasn’t the first time they went there to resolve an argument.

They laid their sport jackets on the sand and sat there, barefoot, looking at the ocean. At 6.30 pm it wasn’t as hot as it had been during the day, the wind fresh and the sun about to set.

After Jo didn’t speak for a long time, Dean decided to take the initiative.

“I’m sorry about the lift.”

“I’m not mad about that.”

“Then what?”

“I just want to win.” She said, as if that had to do with anything.

“Of course”

“No, not ‘of course’!" she exploded.

"You’re always like ‘well, we did our best’, ‘We just like to skate’ and all that politically correct crap you pull out at every interview. I don’t want to skate, I want to win. But you don’t even care half as much.”

“What do you mean I don’t care? We’ve spent our entire youth inside a rink. I know you better than I know Sam, by now. We both made the same sacrifices for this. What, you think I’m doing this just for fun?”

“I think you’re okay with being _good_ and doing _well_ , no matter the result.”

“Yeah Jo, because skating is the only thing we _can_ do. The score is up to the judges.”

“As if I don’t know! Oh my God, don’t you see? We could upgrade the jumps, but do you care that we don’t have the flips yet? And do you care I can’t do my lutz?”

“So this is about the jumps?”

“It’s about everything! You’re always… fucking _fine_ with whatever happens.”

“So it’s about me?!” he yelled, glad there was no one near enough to hear them.

She was silent for a few seconds.

This was not a new fight, this was a continuation of a silent argument that had been going on for the past three years, when they realized they had a different perspective on the concept of success.

Something that had come up a couple of times, something they had quickly swept under the rug, too afraid of the consequences it could have on their partnership.

And also on their friendship.

Jo had tears in her eyes, but Dean could see it was purely out of frustration.

“Dean, I didn’t mean… but when you shrug everything off, like nothing? It makes me feel like _I’m_ the crazy one.”

He took a deep breath. She was right: as much as he was determined to succeed, he wasn’t as aggressive as Jo was. But that didn’t mean he didn’t want to win, both for himself and for her.

“Jo, we just react differently. You can’t be consistent with a jump after one week of training it seriously. Jody knows what she’s doing, and we need to trust her, ok? And with that silver medal, in case you forgot, came quite a lot of money. We can finally afford a good choreographer for our next programs. You can’t just look straight at the Olympics now, you need the complete picture.”

“I know that.” She said looking down, too proud to offer more than that.

He put an arm around her shoulders anyway.

“I’m trying, okay? I swear I’m putting my 150%”

She rest her head on his chest. “Make it 200.”

He chuckled. This was surely going to come up again in the next few months, but for now it was enough.

They were silently admiring the beginning of the sunset, when she suddenly jumped on her feet.

“Let’s do the lift from before, come on.”

“Now?”

“Yes. Oh, you know what? We should take a picture. Lose the shirt, I’m going to ask those girls.”

“Is that really neces-”

“Yes Dean. Please.”

He sighed, getting up, as Jo ran to the three girls nearby with her phone in hand.

He took off his shirt, not really sure why, but saw that Jo did the same thing, remaining in her sport bra and shorts. “It’s more artistic” she explained.

One of the girls had Jo’s phone in hand and they all walked to the shore.

Dean picked her up, held her above his head with one arm as he extended the other back. She extended her legs and they stayed like that for a few seconds, so that the girl could take more than one shot. After that, Dean thanked the girls as Jo posted the picture on both of their accounts.

As expected, they instantly received a lot of likes and comments, some of them from the colleagues from all over the world they had befriended in past years.

That night, just as he was going to bed, he received a notification: a verified account had liked the picture.

He opened the app and his heart skipped a beat.

Castiel Novak had started following him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!  
> As always, any type of feedback is much appreciated ❤︎
> 
> [Gala rehersal ](https://youtu.be/8Ecxgg0zahg)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, any type of feedback means the world to me! 
> 
> Here's some videos for reference:  
> [General idea for off ice warm up](https://youtu.be/4nzye8YQ4Yw)  
> [What I imagine Jo and Dean's skating style could be like ](https://youtu.be/5vzBhL6jVXw)  
> [General idea for on ice warm up](https://youtu.be/8kymXiIaKXQ)  
> [Music and inspiration for Castiel's program](https://youtu.be/yscAKatTJDs)  
> Figure skating notes.  
> There are four disciplines: Men (singles), Ladies (singles), Pairs (couples), Ice Dance (couples).  
> Main difference between Pairs and Ice Dance, is that in pairs there's jumps and more 'acrobatic' elements, while Ice Dance is more focused on skating skills and actually bringing dancing on the ice (my personal favorite).
> 
> In a competition, for each discipline there's a short program and a free program. The two programs are skated in different days, and for the final results they sum the points made in the two programs.  
> The skaters are divided in groups depending on their standings, and within each group they sort the order. At the beginning of a group there's a warm up on ice.
> 
> For elite teams, the season starts in October with the Grand Prix circuit, the top 6 for each discipline qualify for the Grand Prix Final. Then there's Nationals, then Europeans or Four Continents (equivalent to European Championships for non european countries) and lastly Worlds, usually in March.


End file.
